Inferno

Canto I

Midway on life’s journey,
I found myself in a dark wood,
having lost the right path.

Ah, how hard it is to speak of
the nature of that wood: so savage, dense and harsh
that the very thought of it renews my fear!

It is so bitter, death is hardly more so.
But to set forth the good that I found
I will tell of the other things I saw.

I can’t really say how I came to be there,
I was so befuddled by sleep
when I left the right path,

but when I reached the foot of a hill,
there where ended the valley
that had pierced my heart with fear,

looking up I saw its shoulders
Clothed in the first light of the planet
That leads men straight, no matter what their road,

then, in the lake of my heart,
the fear that had endured all through the night
I spent in such distress was calmed.

And, like one who with labored breath
has escaped from the depths to the shore
turns to look back at the perilous waters,

so my soul, still in flight,
turned back to look at the pass
no mortal being ever passed through alive.

After I rested my tired body a while,
I again made my way along the desert slope,
my firm foot always lower than the other.

But now, near the beginning of the incline,
a leopard, light and fast,
covered with a mottled pelt,

refused to retreat from me
but barred the path, and so impeded me
that many times I turned to descend.

It was the hour of morning
when the sun rises with those stars
that shone with it when the divine love

first moved those beautiful things
so that I could hope for good in spite of
that beast with gaudy fur, encouraged

by the hour of day and the sweet season.
But no, I trembled at the sight
of what appeared to me to be a lion.

He seemed to come at me with
head so high and ravenous
that the air appeared to tremble before him.

And a she-wolf, all skin and bones
with a frightful hunger
that has made so many live in wretchedness,

so weighed me down with the terror
that arose at the sight of her
that I lost hope of attaining further elevation.

And like one who rejoices in his acquisition
but, when the time comes that he loses,
cries and laments at his loss,

such did that restive beast, by
approaching me step by step, make me
descend to where the sun is silent.

While I was fleeing to that low place,
there appeared before my eyes a figure
who appeared faintly in that great silence.

When I saw him in that wide desert
I cried “Have pity on me,
whoever you are, ghost or man!”

He answered, “Not a man, though I was once.
My parents were from Lombardy,
Mantua was their ancestral home.

“I was born under Julius Caesar, though late in his reign,
and I lived in Rome under good Augustus
in a time of false and lying gods

“I was a poet and sang of the just
son of Anchises who came from Troy
after haughty Ilium was put to the torch.

“But you, why are you returning to such misery?
Why do you not climb this blissful peak, which is
the source of every joy?”

“Are you then that Virgil, that font from which
springs forth so rich a stream of speech?”
I responded, with my head bowed in shame.

“Oh, honour and light of all other poets,
with long study and deep love
I delved deep into your verses.

“You are my teacher, my author,
you are the one from whom alone I took
the fair style that has brought me honour

“See the beast that made me turn back.
Save me from her, famous sage,
for she sets my pulse to trembling in my veins.”

“To another path you must turn,”
he answered when he saw me weeping,
“if you would escape this savage wood.

“For this beast that makes you cry out
lets none pass by this way
but so harries him that she kills him.

“Her nature is so malign, so evil,
that her appetite is never sated.
After she feeds, her hunger is worse than ever.

“She mates with many creatures.
And there will be more, until the hound shall come
that’ll make her die of pain.

“He’ll feed on neither land nor money
but on wisdom, love and virtue.
Between layers of felt he’ll be born.

“He’ll be the salvation of low Italy
for which the virgin Camilla,
Eurydalus, Turnus, and Nisus bled and died.

“He’ll hunt the beast through every town
until she’s sent her back to Hell
whence she was first released by Envy.

“For your sake, I think and deem it wise
you follow me. I will be your guide, and lead you hence
through the eternal place

“where you will hear shrieks of despair
and see ancient souls in torment
as they bewail their second death.

“Then you will see those who are content
to burn because they hope to come,
at some time, to be among the blessed

“to whom, should you wish to ascend,
another soul you’ll find, more fit to lead you than I.
With her I’ll leave you,

“for that Emperor who reigns on high
wills that, as I was a rebel to his law,
I should not enter His city.

“Everywhere he governs, and there he rules.
There is His city and His lofty seat.
Oh, happy is the man He elects should be there!”

And I answered, “Poet, I beg of you,
by the God you never knew,
in order that I may escape this danger and damnation

“lead me to the places you’ve described
so that I may see St. Peter’s gate
And those you tell me languish in such sorrow.”
Then he set off, and I followed after.

 

Canto II

Day was departing and the bruised light
released the creatures of the earth
from their labours and I, alone,

prepared to sustain myself in the battle--
of the road and the woe of it--
which memory shall retrace, unerring.

Oh Muses, oh lofty Genius, aid me now!
O Memory, that recorded what I saw
here shall you show your worth.

I began, "Poet who guides me,
consider if I am worthy
before you trust me to this arduous path.

"You tell of the father of Sylvius
who, still subject to corruption,
went to the immortal world in living flesh;

"but the Adversary of all evil
favoured him. In consideration of the great things
--both who and what--that would follow him, it

"does not seem unfitting to an intelligent man that
he was chosen in the Empyrean
to be the father of holy Rome and her empire;

"these were both ordained--speaking truthfully--
to be the sacred place
where sit the successors of great Peter.

"On this journey, for which you glorify him,
he learned that which both propelled him
to victory and prepared the Papal mantle.

"Afterwards, the Chosen Vessel went there
to bring back confirmation of that Faith
which is the first step on our road to salvation.

"But why should I go there? Who will permit it?
I am not Aeneas; I am not Paul.
Neither I nor anyone else deems me worthy for this.

"Therefore, to commit myself to go
may, I fear, be madness.
You are wise; you understand better than I can express it."

And as one who unwills what he has willed
and on second thought changes his purpose
so he withdraws from what he has begun,

such I became on that dark slope.
By thinking too much I abandoned the enterprise
so soon begun.

"If I truly understand your intent,"
replied that magnanimous soul,
"your spirit is best by cowardice,

"which so often burdens a man
it turns him away from great enterprise
the way a beast shies from a shadow.

"To free you from your fear
I'll tell you why I came and what I heard
that made me first pity you.

"I was one of those in limbo
when a lady called me. She was so blessed and beautiful
that I implored her to command me.

"Her eyes shone brighter than the stars
and she began to speak, gentle and clear
with an angelic voice:

"'Oh courteous Mantuan spirit
whose fame continues
and shall last as long as Time,

"'my friend, not a friend of Fortune,
is so impeded in his passage on the desert slope
that he has turned back in terror

"'and I fear, through what I hear in Heaven,
he may have strayed so far that
I have risen too late to save him.

"'Go, and with your burnished oratory
and whatever else is needed for his deliverance,
aid him, so that I may be consoled.

"'I am Beatrice who bids you go.
I come from a place to which I desire greatly to return.
The love that impelled me makes me speak.

"'When I am before my Lord
I will often praise you to Him.'
Then she fell silent and I began:

"Oh lady of such virture that through it alone
humanity slips the bonds
of the narrowest of the heavens,

"You command so pleases me
that my consent, were it already given, would seem to arrive too late,
you need not explain further.

"But tell me, why have you not hesitated
to descend to the earth's center
from the unbounded space to which you long to return?"

"'As you are so eager to know,
I will explain, briefly,' she replied to me
'Why I do not fear to enter this place.

"'One need only fear those things
that have the power to harm us;
nothing else is frightening.

"'God, in His grace, gave me such a nature that
misery such as yours does not touch me,
nor do these fires assail me.

"'A noble lady in Heaven is so moved
by pity at his trouble she lets me send you to him,
despite the stern judgement there on High.

"'She sent for Lucy and made this requent of her:
"Your faithful one now needs you
and I commend him to your care."

"'Lucy, the foe of every cruelty
rose and came to me
where I sat at ancient Rachel's side

"'and said "Beatrice, true praise of God,
why do you not help he who so loved you
that for you he left the vulgar hordes?

"'"Do you not hear his pain?
Nor see the death that hounds him
by the river the sea cannot conquer?"

"'Never were men on earth so quick
to pursue their good or flee their harm
as I, after these words were uttered,

"'to come here below from my blessed seat
trusting to your noble speech
that honors you and those who have heard it.'

"After she had said this to me
she averted her eyes, bright with tears,
making me eager to come quickly

"and I came to you as she wished
and saved you from the savage beast that denied you
the short path to the beautiful mountain.

"Now, then. Why? why do you delay?
Why do you let such cowardice command your heart?
Why are you not more daring and sure,

"since three such blessed ladies
care for you in the court of Heaven
and my words promise you so much good?"

As little flowers, drooped and closed by
the chill of night, stand open on their stems
when the sun shines on them,

so did I overcome my flagging courage.
So much daring filled my heart
that I began, as one set free:

"Oh, how compassionate she is to help me,
and you, so courteous, so ready to obey
the true words she spoke to you.

"Your speech has made my heart so eager
to journey with you
that I have returned to my first impulse.

"On then! For a single will propels us both.
You are my guide, my lord and my master."
This I told him. He moved on
and I, too, started on the deep and savage path.
 

Canto III
 

Through me, the way to the city of woe.
Through me, the way to eternal pain.
Through me, the way of the lost.

"Justice moved my Maker on high:
I was made by the Divine Power,
Supreme Wisdom, and Primal Love.

"Before me there was nothing
but eternal things and I exist eternally.
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.

These dark-hued words I saw
cut into an archway
and I said, "Master, their meaning is unclear to me."

And he replied with understanding:
"Here you must rid yourself of all mistrust,
here all cowardice must be overcome.

"We have come to the place of which I spoke, where
you would see the wretched people
who have lost the good of the Intellect."

And, placing his hand on mine
with a reassuring look that gave me courage,
he took me through to things cut off from all humanity.

Now sighs, lamentations and deep wailing
resounded through the starless sky
such that I began to weep, too.

Strange tongues, horrible utterances,
words of misery, cries of rage,
voices deep and faint, the sound of hand slaps

made a tumult which whirls always
in that air, forever dark,
as sand swirls caught in a whirlwind's breath,

and I, my head swimming with horror
said, "Master, what do I hear?
And what people are these, so overcome with misery?"

He replied, "This miserable state is the burden
of those wretched souls
who lived without disgrace, but also without praise.

"They commingle with that caitiff choir
of angels that neither rebelled
nor were faithful to God--that remained apart--

"cast out so as not to impair Heaven's beauty,
Hell does not receive them
lest the evil angels boast to have them."

And I: "Master, what is so grievous to them
to make them lament so bitterly?"
He replied, "I can tell you in a few words:

"they have no hope of death,
and their life, blind, is so debased
that they are envious of all others.

"The world does not remember them,
Memory and Justice hold them in contempt.
Let us not speak of them. Look, then pass on."

And I, having regarded them, saw a banner, which
whirling, ran swiftly
as though it could never find rest.

And behind it came so long a train
of people, such that I could not believe
that death had undone so many.

After I recognized some of those
I saw, and knew the shade of him
who, through cowardice, made the great refusal,

I immediately understood with certainty
that this was that despicable company
hateful to God and His foes alike.

These wretches, who had never truly lived,
were naked and spurred on
by the stings of flies and wasps

that streaked their faces with blood,
which, mingled with tears, fell to their feet
and was gathered by loathsome worms.

Then, looking further on,
I saw people on the bank of a great river;
so I asked, "Master, permit me

"to know who they are and what
makes them so eager to cross over,
as it seems to me in this dim light."

His reply: "These things will become clear,
but not before we stop
on the mournful bank of Acheron."

Then, with eyes downcast in shame,
worried if what I asked displeased him,
I held my tongue until we reached that stream.

And behold! crossing to us in a boat,
an old man, hair white with age,
crying out, "Woe to you, you wicked souls,

"abandon all hope of ever seeing Heaven.
I come to transport you to the other bank,
into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice.

"And you there, living soul,
get away from these who are dead."
But when he saw that I did not depart

he said, "By another path, another ferry
not here, will you take passage;
a lighter ship will take you."

My guide said, "Charon, do not torment yourself.
This is willed where Will is Power.
Ask no more."

That quieted the shaggy jowls
of that ferryman on that livid marsh
around about whose eyes flames wheeled.

But those souls, weary and naked,
paled and gnashed their teeth
when they heard his bitter words.

They cursed God, their parents,
the human race, and the place, time and seed
of their conception and birth.

Then all of them, weeping bitterly,
drew together to the cursed shore
that awaits every man who fears not God.

The demon Charon, with eyes of glowing coal,
beckons them, herds them all aboard,
striking the slow ones with his oar.

As, in Autumn, the leaves fall
one after the other, until the branch
sees all its spoils upon the earth,

so, too, one by one, did the wicked seed of Adam
launch themselves from shore at the signal,
as a falcon at its call.

Thus they depart over the dark waters
and, before they have come to the far side,
on this shore another throng has gathered.

"My son," said the courteous master,
"those who die under the wrath of God
assemble here from every country

"and they are eager to cross over the river,
for God's justice so spurs them
that their fear becomes longing.

"No clean soul ever crosses here;
so, if Charon snaps at you,
now you understand the meaning of his complaint."

When he finished speaking, the gloomy plain
shook with such force that the mere memory
of my terror again makes me break out in a sweat.

From the tear-soaked land arose a wind
flaming with scarlet light
that overpowered all my senses
and I fell like a man overcome by sleep.
Canto IV

A sonorous thunderclap broke the deep sleep in my head
so that I started
like one woken by violent shaking.

Rising, I looked about
with my rested eye, then focused
to determine where I was.

I say, truthfully, I found myself
on the edge of an abyss of such suffering
that it peals with the roar of infinite sorrow.

Dark,  deep, and hazy,
 no matter how hard I strained,
I couldn’t see to the bottom.

“Now, from here let us descend into that blind world”
began the poet, ashen faced.
“ I will leave, and you follow.”

And I, noting his pallor, replied:
“how shall I come, if you are afraid—
you who are to support me in my fear?”

He to me: “the anguish of those below us
colours my face with pity
which you mistake for fear

“Let’s go, for the long road calls.”
Thus, he stepped forward and bade me enter
the first circle ringing the abyss.

Here, one could hear
no lamentation but such sighs
to make the air eternally tremble.

These came from grief—grief without torment—
felt by vast hordes
of children, of women, and of men.

The good teacher to me: “You don’t ask
about the souls you see.
I would have you know, before you go on,

“These did not sin; and though they have merit
it isn’t enough,
for they were never baptized, which is the gateway of your faith.

“And if they lived before Christians
they did not rightly worship God. 
And such as these am I.

“For such defects, and no other
we are lost, and only suffer
in that without hope we live in longing

Great sadness took my heart when I comprehended this.
For I knew then that people of tremendous worth
were suspended in that Limbo.

“Tell me, my teacher, tell me master,”
I began, seeking to be assured
in the faith that conquers all doubt,

“Did anyone, either by his own merits,
or by another’s, ever rise from here to blessedness?”
And he, who understood my deeper question

Responded: “I was newly arrived in this state
when I saw a mighty being come here
wreathed in the signs of victory.

“From us, he plucked the shade of our first parent,
of his son, Abel, of Noah,
of Moses, obedient lawgiver,

“Abraham, the patriarch and David the king,
Isaac with his father and his sons,
and with Rachel, for whom he did so much,

“as well as may others; and he made them blessed.
And I would have you know: before these ones
no human soul was saved.”

We did not stop moving as he spoke,
but passed the whole while through the wood.
The wood, I mean, of crowding spirits.

We had not gone far along our way
from where I had slept, when I saw a blaze
that overcame the dark hemisphere about us.

We were still a ways distant from it
but not so far that I couldn’t see in part
that an honorable group occupied that spot.

“O you who do honor to both science and art,
who are these are ever so honored
that they stand apart from the state of all the rest?”

He responded” “The honor of their names,
which resound in your life above
gain grace in heaven which thus marks them.”

At that, I heard a voice:
“Honor the loftiest poet! 
His shade, which had departed, has returned.”

When the voice fell silent
I saw four notable shades draw near
their faces neither sad nor glad.

The good teacher began to say:
“see the one with a sword in hand
who precedes the three like a lord

“He’s homer, lord of poets. 
Next, Horace, the satirist;
Ovid, the third, finally Lucan.

“Since each of us share
in the name the one voice uttered
they do me honor, and in so doing, do well.”

There I saw gathered the fair school
of the lord of loftiest song
who soars above all like an eagle.

After they spoke together awhile
they turned to me with signs of greeting
and this made my master smile.

And yet more honor did they do me
for they made me one of their band. 
So I became the sixth, amid so much wisdom.
Thus we preceded unto the light
discoursing on things better left unsaid here,
just as it was becoming to speak of them there

We came to the foot of a noble castle,
circled seven times by high walls
defended round about by a fair stream.

Over the stream we passed as though on firm ground. 
Through seven gates I entered with these sages
until we came to a fresh meadow.

People were there with slow, grave eyes
and great authority in their demeanor. 
They seldom spoke, and then softly.

There, we drew off to one side
into an open space, well lit and elevated
so we could see them all.

There before me, on the green enamel
the good spirits were revealed. 
Inside myself, I exult at what I saw.

I saw Electra, with many companions,
among whom I recognized Hector and Aeneas
Caesar, in armor with his falcon eyes.

I saw Camilla and Penthesliea.
Aside I saw King Latinus;
seated with him was his daughter.
I saw that Brutis who drove out Tarquin;
Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia.
And alone, apart, I saw Saladin.

When I raised my gaze a little
I saw the master of those who know
seated among his philosophic kind

All regard him, all do him honor. 
Here I saw Socrates and Plato,
who stand nearest him, before all others.

Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance.
Diogenes, Anaxagores, and ____
Empedocles, Heraclitus and Zeno.

I saw the great collector of qualities,
(Dioscordes, I mean); and I saw Orpheus,
Tully, Linus and moral Seneca,

Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy,
Hippocrates, Avicenna and Galen,
And Averroes, who wrote the great commentaries.

I cannot report of all of them
for I am so driven by the length of my theme
that often the story falls short of the truth.

The company of six is reduced to two. 
By another road my wise leader brings me out
from the stillness into the trembling air. 
And I come to a place where no light shines.